Ill Wind: Weather Warden, Book 1

Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden. Usually, all it takes is a wave of her hand to tame the most violent weather. But now, she's trying to outrun another kind of storm: accusations of corruption and murder. So, she's resorting to the very human tactic of running for her life.... Her only hope is Lewis, the most powerful warden known. Unfortunately, he's stolen not one but three bottles of Djinn-making him the most wanted man on earth. Still, she's racing hard to find him-before the bad weather closes in fast.

Cocaine Blues

It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But she becomes bored with London and the endless round of parties. In search of excitement, she sets her sights on a spot of detective work in Melbourne, Australia. And so mystery and the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse, appear in her life. From then on it's all cocaine and communism until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.

The Book of Life: All Souls, Book 3

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness's enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew's ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches - with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

I was so excited when this came out - I'd been waiting for what felt like forever to finish the trilogy and find out what happened to Diana and Matthew. It feels like it is still taking forever to finish this trilogy. I can't listen for more than 45 minutes as the reader makes Diana sound completely whiny. I don't like whiny people and this grates like nails on a chalkboard to me (I'm old - I know what that sound is).

I really love the concept of the books but this third one is really a disappointment, the story is dragging and I'm not sure if its because of my dissatisfaction of how the book is read or if it is the book itself is written. Since I own the book, I will know soon enough.

The Silkworm

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows.

Cormoran Strike and his able secretary Robin are on the case of a missing writer. While at first the story seems pretty straight-forward, the twists are fun, Robin gets to do more than secretarial work and the reader has hit the mark of who Cormoran Strike is. I can't even write Robin's name without hearing Cormoran saying it.

Twelve Angry Men

Over the course of a steamy and tense afternoon, 12 jurors deliberate the fate of a 19-year-old boy alleged to have murdered his own father. A seemingly open and shut case turns complicated, igniting passions and hidden prejudices.

This is one of my all time favorite movies, Henry Fonda can't be beat in the movie version so when this popped up, I thought I would give it a shot but didn't think it would even come close. I LOVED this version, even tho we have seen the movie numerous times, this book sucked us in and didn't let go until it was over. Amazing performance, fabulous story.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

It is the summer of 1950 and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw.

My partner read this book and told me it was fabulous - I listened to it and found it to be a great read too. I loved Flavia, had I read this when I was a teen or pre-teen, I would have wanted to be Flavia.

The reader was fabulous, Flavia is 11 and so often, you know that the reader is an adult, Flavia sounded 11 and this made the story so much more fun.

Howl's Moving Castle

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and ALA Notable and Best of the Year in Young Adult Fiction, Howl's Moving Castle is by acclaimed fantasy writer Diane Wynne Jones amd was transformed into an Academy Award nominated animated motion picture by Hayao Miyazaki. On a rare venture out from her step-mother's hat shop, Sophie attracts the attention of a witch, who casts a terrible spell transforming the young girl into an old crone.

Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.

Shadow of Night

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches' cliff-hanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew's old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens. Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries.

I had high hopes for this book after A Discovery of Witches, I was not disappointed. I loved how while they were in the past, the people they left in the present would find artifacts that let them know they were still alive... well woven, written and read! Looking forward to the third installation.

Mistress of the Art of Death: A Novel

In medieval England, four children have been murdered, and the townsfolk blame their Jewish neighbors. The doctor chosen to investigate is a woman, Adelia. As she examines the victims and retraces their last steps, she must conceal her true identity in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she's assisted by Sir Rowley Picot, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. A former Crusader knight, Rowley may be a needed friend - or the fiend for whom they are searching.

I really enjoyed meeting Adelia in this book and am looking forward to the rest of the books in the series. What really drew me in was the time period in which this takes place, not a commonly written about period and that in itself made the story fun.

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

The season of gift-giving is here, and this year we've got something special for our members: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Yuletide whodunit "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". In this holiday-themed short story, Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson, follow the trail of a lost hat and a Christmas goose through the streets of London and into a rapidly expanding mystery.

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